Earth Day Idea: Bike Sharing

A few days ago I stumbled upon an article talking about a bike sharing program in Denver. Starting today, Denver residents will be able to rent a bike Zipcar-syle for $5 a day, $20 a week, $30 a month, or $65 a year. This is the part that's really cool... if a bicyclist can pick up and return a bike within 30min, it's free. Over 400 bikes will be available across multiple stations throughout, giving Denver the largest bike-share program in the US. There's a little Silicon Valley in there too... bikers each get a personal account page which tracks how many miles you've traveled, carbon offset, calories burned, money saved, etc.

Why am I telling you all this about Denver? I think this is simply a phenomenal concept. I wish we thought of it first! We have an amazing bicycling community here and you need to look no further than San Jose Bike Party as a shining example of this. Biking is a great way to reduce traffic and pollution, live healthier, and build a unique culture. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so I say we compliment Denver by shamelessly taking their concept and implementing it here as well. Perhaps we can even do a little to make it our own (electric-assisted hybrid bikes like the ones we may see at the San Pedro Square Market)?

As ground zero for green-tech innovation, we should be on top of this stuff. I would love to one day be able to walk around downtown and hop on a bike for a quick ride with friends, or spontaneously join a bike party. With billions going to BART and HSR, hopefully the city can one day also spare a million or two on a high-impact bike sharing program like our friends in Denver.

The San Jose Blog on Twitter

Just a quick post to remind you that there's a Twitter account for The San Jose Blog! Originally I had no idea what the heck to use Twitter for, but I soon realized the tool could be used for more than letting the world know what Ashton Kutcher had for lunch. Actually, it's really come in handy for pushing news that either doesn't quite merit a blog post or I don't have time to write about (usually the latter). A tweet also goes out automatically every time there is a now blog post here, pretty handy.

Click here to follow us on Twitter!

The Usuals Grand Opening!

The Usuals is a brand new San Jose-centric clothing store on the Alameda, and it's everything I could ever want in a clothing store and then some!  Let me start this off by saying I know nothing about fashion... so I'm not even going to try to give an opinion on that topic here. SJFAM (San Jose Fashion Art Music) has a great article describing the product offering at The Usuals, so for that topic I'll direct you guys over there. I will only say that my wife described the clothing here as Diesel style at H&M prices.

Honestly, I wasn't quite sure to expect when I walked in late last Friday during their grand opening. In retrospect I should have brought the big cameras instead of a point and shoot because I really liked what I saw. The first thing I noticed were the I Heart SJ shirts. That scored some major points with me immediately (btw, you can get them online here). Add to that a shirt with an awesome throwback to San Jose's history... you'll actually have to visit to see this, I'm not going to spoil it for you! Unfortunately, the 250+ visitors that came before me cleaned house on all the SJ shirts in my size!

Next, gratuitous amounts of local art. Josh Marcotte's work from Lost San Jose was all over one wall. Another wall was essentially a huge dry-erase board combined with framed art by talented local artist Dion Bello (the dry erase allows for some very dynamic art since it can be changed on the fly). Music from San Jose DJs. More points, lots of them. The Usuals clearly cares about San Jose's burgeoning art scene.

Lastly, I have never been a big fan of mall or chain stores, but I also don't want to break the bank with specialty Santana-Rowish boutiques. The Usuals carries a solid assortment of clothes that look stylish, are comfortable, AND are affordable. Add the information from the previous two paragraphs, and this is absolutely a store I will support with my dollars. Hopefully you guys will swing by and take a look as well--1020 The Alameda, across the street from Sushi Infinity and Chipotle.

Now for photos (sorry in advance for the point & shoot photos, should have brought a DSLR camera)!

Two Buck Tuesday

Great event I haven't promoted in a while. All of the details are below!

The Usuals Merc Article

I have a blog post coming up next week about a great new "San Jose-centric" clothing retailer called The Usuals that launched last Friday on the Alameda. Until then, there is a great article about them in the Merc entitled: "The Usuals will carry a line of everyday clothing that appeals to those who consider San Jose 'the city'." One negative thing that caught my eye is that they claimed a retail space downtown would be much more expensive. Also when talking to them last Friday this was confirmed as they mentioned it would have cost thousands of dollars more per month in rent to have the store located Downtown. It's a shame because while they do have a very good location now, this type of store would have been perfect in SoFA, 1st St., or 2nd St.

San Pedro Square Market - SJ21 Blog Post

Great post in SJ21 about the San Pedro Square Market with a few photos of the current space.  Click here to view!

Saturday Stats - San Jose has the Highest Spending on Electronics out of ALL US Cities

I have a great stat for you guys this week. This one comes courtesy of my friends at Bundle.com. In 2009, San Jose had the highest per capita spending on electronics for all major cities in the country, and it led by a wide margin. This makes sense given San Jose is Silicon Valley's anchor city. So my question is... when are we going to see a flagship Fry's in Downtown San Jose? Come on Mr. William Fry & family, throw us a bone!

More realistically, what I would love to see are some boutique Tokyo Akihabara-style electronics shops somewhere Downtown or in Japantown. There is obviously a very strong market for electronics in San Jose, so someone should take advantage of this demographic and provide a more innovative and unique experience than your standard big-box retailer like Best Buy.

Friday Flowers - Part 3

This is the third part (of four) of a weekly Spring feature showing off Kathy's floral work at Santana Row. If you know anyone that needs a floral architect, her contact information is below. Time to kick back and enjoy the flowers.

Kathy Finley
Finley Landscape Design
(925) 785-5501
kathy@finleylandscape.com